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The last couple of weeks I have been trying to find some new recipes that are gluten free and easy to make, especially when it comes to weeknight cooking. While doing some research on Pinterest, I came across this great website, gFreeFoodie. This website has some awesome recipes and I now have a list that I want to try. A couple that were on the list, I fixed last week.

The first was Avocado + Bacon Scallop Tacos. Reading this recipe, I was incredibly nervous since it had ingredients that didn’t go together, or at least that is what I thought. Let me just say that I was soooooo wrong. They were awesome and honestly, not that tough to cook. I did fix the sauces earlier in the day but even if I had done it all at once it would have been completely fine.

The second recipe that I decided to try was Chicken Gumbo. I was in search of a gumbo recipe that didn’t include shrimp. Since Sean can’t have shrimp anymore this was one dish that I hadn’t made in a while because he couldn’t eat it. Finding this recipe, I knew it would work and fingers crossed it would be good! We liked this one a lot; we’ve just decided that jumbalaya is more our style. Gumbo is good just too soupy for Sean and too much okra for me. That is ok, I am so glad we tried.

The last one that I tried was Pretzel-Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken . This recipe was amazing and of course I didn’t take a picture of it. Sean and I both really, really enjoyed this one and it was super simple to make. The only bad part was the amount of time that the chicken took to cook in the oven. That is probably why I don’t cook chicken in the oven very often. I still will probably fix this one again though.

Oprah does a list every year, so why can’t I make a list of some of my favorite things for 2014? Some of this stuff really helped to make my year easier, more enjoyable and just plain fun.

What made our favorite things list for 2014? Check it out below.

1. Coach Clutch – This was a gift I received from a good friend for being in her wedding. I love it. I use it all the time because it is the perfect size and matches everything.

2. Kaliochic Chevron laptop bag – My laptop bag was falling apart really badly and I finally found a bag that I really liked. Now I absolutely love this bag. It has the right cushioning for my laptop and the right amount of storage for my other stuff for work.

3. Chandon – Oh Chandon, how I love you. Yes, by far my favorite drink of 2014. Oh and it didn’t help that I got to visit when we went to Napa. By far my go to Champagne.

5. Eddie Bauer blanket – This was a gift from my hubby. He found this on a shopping trip, while I was off at a shower for his cousin. This is the most lite weight, warm blanket we have every owned. I think it gets used almost every night on our couch when watching TV.

6. Under Armour Workout gear – So comfortable and the best gift I could get from my parents for my birthday. I wish I was in my workout gear all the time. Granted there are still times when I go for competitor products but my UA pants are winners. These pants get me through long workouts and keep me cool.

7. Nikon d800 – I love this camera! I have used this so much this year, it’s crazy. A couple of trips home, an outing with my dad, portraits for several of my cousins, and a vacation, why yes it really has gotten a work out. I even rented a lense for our vacation.

8. LLBean duffle bags – With all of the traveling we did this year, I don’t know what we would have done without these duffles. We each have one but they really came in handy on the trips home, the vacation, and all of the other traveling!

I had seen a couple of people post videos of this on Facebook. I figured if it really only took 30 minutes then it couldn’t be that hard to figure this out. Unfortunately I tried the video that others suggested but it was not helpful. So I did a little searching on my own and found another video that is below that is awesome! She goes into lots of detail and it made it super easy to follow, even though I had to rewind it like 5 times! Even with the rewinding it probably only took me 45 minutes and I am getting ready to start on a second one.

It is by far one of the warmest scarves I own and I can’t wait to do another one in gray, especially since this week is supposed to be so cold.

If you are thinking of trying to do one of these, watch the video linked below. I am telling you she is the best and makes it super easy!

Yesterday when I got home there was a package leaning up against our garage. I got really excited since the last package I got turned out to be this. I had no idea what this package was considering that I knew that I had not ordered anything recently.

As many of my close family and friends know, I have always been a huge fan of the Bachelor and Bachelorette shows. I think I have pretty much watched every season and I definitely have my favorites from the shows. I follow many of my favorites on Twitter. I love to see their comments on what has happened during the show and what they share about their lives. One of the girls from Matt Grant’s season of the Bachelor and Bachelor Pad 2 was Holly Durst. Holly was definitely one of my favorites and I was cheering for her and Michael to win the money on Bachelor Pad as well as for her to end up with Blake. So a couple of weeks ago on Twitter when I saw that she wanted to send bloggers her book and have them review it, I decided “Hey I can do that!”

So the package that showed up to our house yesterday was a copy of Holly’s first children’s book called Chocolate Socks. I was super excited.

So of course I opened it right away and started to read. The story is short but sweet and to the point. Follow your dreams, no matter what. The story I felt was well written and will be a great book to read when we have kids someday. It will be a great compliment to another one of my favorite follow your dreams book, Salt in his Shoes, by Michael Jordan.

Not only did I really enjoy the story but I really enjoyed the illustrations. I loved the bright colors and the cute kids! Each spread was something new and interesting. As a graphic designer I really enjoyed the font that they chose to use for the story, it made it very fun to read and a very child like feel. It felt like the child was sitting near me and had just scribbled down the story. Which is an awesome thing for a children’s book.

Great job Holly for writing your first book! Thank you for sharing and even more for signing my copy! It will be in our library in our home for a long time!